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A teenager from the Land Down Under has appeared in court after reportedly defacing a large art piece of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.

The 19-year-old, aged 19, participated via phone at the local court in the state of South Australia on that day, charged with a single charge of damaging property.

Officials commented at the moment of the recent event, the municipal authorities explained that surveillance video captured a individual putting fake eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.

The accused did not enter a plea and informed the court she was unwell, as reported by media sources, with the magistrate advising her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.

A day after the reported event, the local mayor stated that restoration to the popular community sculpture would be expensive as the stickers were impossible to be removed without damaging the sculpture.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued public artwork is unacceptable and disrespectful,” City of Mount Gambier mayor said in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those people of our society who have welcomed Cast in Blue.”

She said the local government would seek the “significant” restoration expenses from those responsible for the damage.

When the sculpture was first proposed, it drew varied responses from the local community due to its price tag and design.

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the sculpture represents a mythical megafauna, with the creators inspired by an prehistoric marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.